


Fahr: Manuala

by acindra



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 06:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11526588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acindra/pseuds/acindra
Summary: Michael plays a game, Jeremy reads a book.





	Fahr: Manuala

Jeremy wandered into Michael’s basement room to find Michael mashing away at his controller, his headphones connected to the tv. 

It was winter break, so of course Michael was playing a video game.

He flopped down on the floor next to him.

“Oooh, this is a pretty game.”

“Yeah.” Michael muttered, distractedly.

“Very anime, though.”

“Well, it’s made by Circle Xine. So…”

“My, what a large sword you have.” 

“The better to beat the shit out of my enemies with. I actually also have two smaller swords and a spear that I’m using right now.”

“Cool.” He watched Michael’s character beat the shit out of a robot. “How long have you been playing it?”

“All day. It’s really good.”

“Oh, is it new?”

“It’s not, really. I just forgot to pick it up when it released. I’m surprised you didn’t see the trailers before.”

“I kinda fell out of the gaming loop when the squippening happened.”

Michael paused the game so he could lean over and hug him. “I’m so sorry.”

Jeremy shrugged awkwardly. “It just means I have a lot of games I can catch up on.” He said, optimistically. 

“So what brings you here today?”

Jeremy smiled. “I was gonna read, but didn’t want to be alone.” He pulled out his copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; he routinely read the whole series every year around Christmas because ABC always aired a marathon of the movies. 

“Ah, cool.”

“It’s actually pretty good that you’re playing that game. You know how I like my spoilers.” Jeremy didn’t like spoilers themselves, but he liked knowing how others reacted to things so he could gauge if he was prepared to consume whatever media it was.

“This one is going to be emotionally devastating, if the previous games are anything to go by.”

“There are previous games?”

“Yeah. The series is a spinoff of another three part series and then has one game before this. Luckily you don’t need to know anything about the other games to play this one; it’s set like a couple thousand years in the future.”

“Oh good. I don’t think I have the time to play that many games.” He laughed, relieved.

“I haven’t read much on them in case there are spoilers, but if they’re anything like this one I’m gonna want to play them when I can.”

“It’s that good?”

“So far.”

Jeremy smiled again, settling down into his beanbag to read.

-

Jeremy pulled himself out of the Wizarding World to take a break. He looked up at the tv screen again. “Oh- what are you playing now? Taking a break from the other game?”

“Nah, It’s the same game.”

“... But that’s a top-down bullet hell game.”

“Yep.” 

“I thought you were playing a 3D hack n slash RPG?”

“Yep.”

“... Weird.”

-

Jeremy was startled out of reading when he heard Michael sniffle. “Are you… are you crying?”

“Maybe.” He wiped at his face with his sleeve, skewing his glasses slightly.

“What happened?” Jeremy glanced at the screen which was back on the title screen.

“Death. It was happy, though.”

“What.”

“You’re going to suffer, but you’ll be happy about it.” Michael quoted. “You’ll see. It’s complicated. I’m gonna take a break and grab some snacks, want anything?”

“Skittles.” Jeremy said, watching Michael stand up and stretch, his shirt riding up and revealing the skin of his stomach.

“Like what you see?” Michael teased, straightening his shirt.

Jeremy blushed. “Yes. I wanna tap dat ass.” He said, deadpan, wiggling one of his fingers at him.

Michael grinned. “Why stop there? It’s so fine- I know you wanna grab it.” He made groping motions then shook his ass at Jeremy.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Stop projecting onto me.”

“Are you saying I want to grab my own ass?”

“Yes.”

He did so. “You’re right. This is good.” He stuck his tongue out at Jeremy, wiggled his ass at him once more, then left for the snacks.

-

“Wait, is your character a girl or a boy? Did you change outfits?”

“Technically, they’re a robot. But he’s a boy.”

“Why does he have a pink bow?”

“Because it’s pretty on him. Get your heteronormativity away from me.”

“I thought you playing as the girl earlier, though?”

“Yeah, that was the first playthrough. You play as the boy the second time around.”

“Is it the same game?”

“Sorta? It’s the same main events but the sidequests are different and you learn more story. Also I think the third time you play through it continues after the first two’s timeline.”

“Sounds… complicated?”

“A little. It’s nice to learn about what happened from a different perspective.”

Jeremy yawned. It was getting late in the day and he had just finished the first book. “Can I sleep?”

“There’s the bed. Knock yourself out.”

Jeremy snorted.

“Not literally, though. I think my mom would have a conniption.”

“You coming?”

“Nah, I’m gonna keep playing.”

“But Michael,” Jeremy whined, “I sleep better when you’re there.”

“You can cling to my pillow if you want.”

“It’s not the same.” Jeremy grumbled, but made to get up anyways.

“Hey.” Michael paused the game. He leaned over to hug Jeremy again. “Sorry. I just don’t think I can sleep without knowing how this ends.”

“Make sure you take a break soon, ok?”

“How about I sit with you for a little bit until you fall asleep?”

“Ok.”

-

Jeremy rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He looked over at Michael who was still playing a game. He squinted. “Are you still playing the same game?” He mumbled, rolling out of Michael’s bed.

“Yep.”

“... But you’re doing sidescrolling platforming.”

“Uh huh.”

“What a weird game.”

“It has a lot of variety. Apparently one of the previous games in the series was all hack n slash and magic and then the boss fight was a really difficult rhythm game.”

“Yikes. I’m gonna go home and grab Chamber of Secrets and a shower then I’ll come back, ok?”

“I’ll be here.”

-

“You’re crying.”

It was the first thing Jeremy noticed when he came back.

Michael pointed at the screen where one of the characters was screaming and clutching their head. “More death.”

Jeremy hugged him from behind. “I’m sorry. Want me to go get you some water?”

“Yes please.”

-

“Oh you’re the girl again. Wait- your dress is all torn up! Talk about fanservice.”

“It’s actually a different character, but yeah.”

“She looks the same, though.”

“She’s the same type of android. I think. They’re both ‘2’s.”

“What does that mean?”

“To be honest, I don’t really know.”

“Are you fighting a zombie clown robot?”

“... Yes.”

-

A few hours later Michael groaned and paused his game, slumping down in his beanbag.

Jeremy looked up from Lockheart’s stupidity. “Sup?”

“I have _another_ quest to do in the factory.”

“What’s so bad about the factory?”

“Nothing.” Michael grumbled. “It’s more my own stupidity. I keep getting quests where you have to go to the front of it and my dumb ass goes through the whole thing thinking it’s back at the beginning.”

Jeremy laughed a little. “Your worst enemy is yourself.”

“Clearly.”

-

Half an hour later, Michael was crying again. “Oh god I can’t believe I just did that.”

“What did you do?” Jeremy asked, looking up at the screen, but Michael’s character was just standing in front of the factory.

“Spoilers.” Michael muttered. “I had to make a choice. And it was awful.”

Jeremy patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sure you made the best one.”

“I don’t know! They were both sucky. This game is making me question things I don’t want to think about.”

“Maybe you should take a break from playing it?”

“No! I need to know how it ends.” Michael had a wild look in his eyes that concerned Jeremy. “I gotta keep going.”

“Ok, ok. I’m not stopping you! I just wanted to make sure you’re alright.”

“I’m not. This game is… fucking with me. On purpose. It’s really good, though.”

Jeremy sighed. “Do you want more water?”

“No… no, I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.”

-

It was about two am when Jeremy finished his book.

He glanced over at Michael who was watching the game’s credits. “You’re crying again.”

“I know. I just got the third and fourth endings.”

“Have you slept at all since you started this game?”

“Nope.”

“I am worried about you, Michael.”

“Nope… Ahh!” Michael jolted slightly as the credits he had been watching went static-y and reversed.

Jeremy watched as the game then gave him a bullet hell mini game out of the credits.

Michael picked up his controller again. “What the fuck this is so hard.” He griped. “Fuck!” He died.

Jeremy watched as he died several times. 

“Rescue offer received?” he muttered after one of his deaths.

“What?”

“Oh my god, I’m getting help from other people!”

On the screen more shooters surrounded Michael’s in the hail of orbs.

Jeremy watched as Michael made short work of the credits after that; the accompanying shooters dying anytime they got hit instead of Michael.

Michael heaved a sigh as he finished the game.

“Is that robot carrying another robot?”

“Yes. Shh, they’re talking.”

Jeremy mimed a zipping motion over his lips as he watched the robots carry what looked like scrap metal and limbs to a building. He glanced at Michael, who was crying again, but he didn’t know why.

The game faded to black and started asking Michael questions.

“I can help other players!” He said, suddenly.

“What?”

“In the bullet hell I just did. I can save other people! Oh but it’s saying it’ll delete all of my save data if I do. I’m gonna do it.”

They watched as the game made a point of deleting all of the data Michael had worked so hard on.

Michael carefully placed down his controller on the floor as the screen went back to the title screen. “It’s over.” he whispered.

“Are you ok?”

“No. I’m probably going to be thinking about it for the next month.”

“Wow. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”

“You could dress up in one of the girls’ outfits.” Michael responded immediately.

“I was thinking something I could actually do.”

“I mean. You _could_.”

“You just want to peek up my skirt.”

“Guilty.” Michael wiggled his eyebrows lecherously.

“If you wanted to get me in your bed, you just have to ask. Speaking of which, it’s probably time to sleep.”

“Jeremy, will you sleep with me?” Michael batted his eyelashes at him.

“Buy me dinner, first.”

“Aw. But you just said all I had to do was ask!”

Jeremy sighed exaggeratedly. “You’ve got me there. Alright. I will sleep with you.”

“Score!” Michael leaned over so he could slump against Jeremy. “Thanks for being here today, by the way. It was nice to hang out even though we were doing different things.”

“Hey, anytime, man!”

“The third playthrough made me feel really lonely.” He admitted. “But then I remembered you were here.”

Jeremy wrapped an arm around him.

Michael brought his hands up to clutch at his arm.

They sat there quietly for a while, glad for the other’s presence.

“But seriously, fuck this game- holy shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you like this fic, please check out the other 30 BMC fics I've written! 
> 
> This is about Nier: Automata, but I tried not to say any spoilers.
> 
> Feel free to hit me up on tumblr ([ acindra ](http://acindra.tumblr.com))- I also made a crocheted doll of [ Michael! ](http://acindra.tumblr.com/post/161391774925)
> 
> [ Bonus George Salazar and Michael!Doll pic ](https://twitter.com/georgesalazar/status/880209460962185216)


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